By Account Coordinator Mitch
As an Instagramer you’re free to post, like, comment, and share things you love/support. More charities are seeing the social impact of the site through donations and a call to action. How can you get started on getting the most out of your Instagram?
Knowing your audience – Instagram has a large following, which continues to increase on a monthly bias. Currently Instagram sees an average 700+ million active users, 400+ million daily posts, and 250+ million daily stories. Instagram is for all ages; however, 59% off users are between the ages of 18 to 29. Also, majority of those individuals live in an urban location with that stat being 39%.
Knowing what to post – It’s not a surprise to say that millennials are picky when it comes to content; however, you only want to remember 3 things when you’re about to post any content. You always want to ensure that your content is crisp and recognizable; the day of a pixeled photo is a thing of a past. By no means are we saying that you need to have professionally photographed content, but photos/videos in natural light and any basic smartphone will be more than acceptable. When editing any content, the “more is less” saying also implies to editing, since the hashtag #nofilter has over 205 million posts. People rather see the natural beauty of what you’re trying to share. Also, don’t be shy! Don’t be afraid to post raw and emotional photos that tell a story; a photo is worth a thousand words, but don’t forget Instagram has a 2200-character count. This allows you to post a story to bring those who aren’t familiar with your cause into the shoes of those who face it on a daily base.
How to reach that following – Hashtags are the primary way to boost any page or post, which allows you to widen your reach. However, just note that a hashtag alone won’t again an audience. There are a flooded number of posts that don’t necessarily relate to the given hashtags posted just to gain a larger audience. Your content must stand out and draw attention of those who scroll through their recommend newsfeed with clear and consistent branding. Setting a content schedule really plays a huge part in getting people to notice your posts, page, and ultimately your cause. Most popular pages post three times daily; however, that’s typically not realistic without thousands of pre-generated content. It’s fine to post daily, but ensure you’re doing it at the peak viewing time. This could be during an early Monday morning to reach those early 9 to 5 public transit commuters or even in the evening after a long Friday workday. It’s best to recognize your demographic and fit your posting schedule within their downtime. Don’t forget about the story feature, which allows you to connect to your following. The story feature allows you to post 24hr videos, which get erased after that time period. Many instagramers use this feature to connect with their follow to create a conversation, which creates more activity within your online community.
Don’t be shy! It’s time to link up your Instagram to your raisin site. This will drive traffic to your social media page to ensure donors or potential donors can view your social media to get inspired. Instagram has made the process of sharing posts extremely easy and it’s a three click process to gain all the information needed to add a feature post to your site. All you need to do is press the three dots ‘
…’, this will give us a few options; however, we want to select the ‘
Embed’ option. You’ll see a pop-up, which will allow you to copy a long line of text which can look confusion since it’s written in HTML code. Once you have this line of text please let your account manager know where you’d like it placed and on what page since they have the ability to add it to your site. They’ll be able to add the line of code to the location of your choice so traffic visiting that page can then see your post of choice!
York, A. (2017, July 19). Social Media Demographics to Inform a Better Segmentation Strategy. Retrieved September 29, 2017, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/
Vogel, B. (2015, January 22). Instagram for Nonprofits: 4 Tips to Get You Started. Retrieved September 29, 2017, from https://wiredimpact.com/blog/instagram-for-nonprofits/